Respected Sportscaster and Voice of New York Mets and Seton Hall Basketball Gary Cohen to Address Class of 2024

Seton Hall University will celebrate its 168th Baccalaureate Commencement ceremony at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 at the Prudential Center, 165 Mulberry Street in Newark, New Jersey. Delivering the commencement keynote address and receiving a honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters will be Gary Cohen, one of the most highly respected sportscasters at the professional and college levels.  

Cohen, a Queens, New York, native is known primarily as the New York Mets' radio and television play-by-play announcer. Now in his 36th year with the team, he serves as the play-by-play announcer for all regular-season SNY produced Mets telecasts. He received the New York Chapter Baseball Writers' Association of America’s Willie, Mickey and the Duke Award following the 2022 season, alongside Ron Darling and Keith Hernandez.

He was inducted into the Mets Hall of Fame in June 2023 and the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame in 2018. A three-time finalist for the Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, he has also broadcast play-by-play for the Mets WFAN Radio, CBS Radio and ESPN Radio.

He called men’s and women’s hockey play-by-play at the 1992, 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympics for CBS Radio. In addition to serving as backup announcer for the New York Rangers, he has called Seton Hall basketball games since 2003 and was the voice of the NCAA Basketball Tournament for CBS News and Westwood One.  

Before coming to the Mets, he broadcast minor league baseball for Boston’s Pawtucket (AAA) club of the International League, the Durham Bulls (A) of the Carolina League and Spartanburg Spinners (A) of the South Atlantic League. He was the basketball and hockey voice for Providence College and broadcast football for Brown University. He has broadcast play-by-play for various sports at the University of Pennsylvania, University of South Carolina-Spartanburg and Old Dominion University and Columbia University, where he holds a degree in political science.

Also receiving a honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters and giving brief remarks at the ceremony will be Sister Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., a member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist and Secretary General of the Governorate of Vatican City State. Sister Petrini was appointed as Secretary General of the Governorate of Vatican City State by Pope Francis in November 2021.

A native of Rome, Italy, Sister Petrini holds a degree in political science from the Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli (LUISS), a master of organizational behavior from the University of Hartford and a doctorate from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (the Angelicum) in Rome. She is a board member of the faculty of social sciences at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, where she is an associate professor of Welfare Economics.

She has served as an official at the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples since 2005. Since 2022, she is also a member of the Dicastery for Bishops, the administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) and the Labor Office of the Holy See (ULSA).

For more information about the speakers and updates on Seton Hall’s 168th baccalaureate ceremony, please visit our commencement website. 

Categories: Campus Life, Education